I received a message this morning... a message of frustration. It made me chuckle. I told her to take a deep breath and just breathe..... Okay, not really. But I could have....

So let's look at a few easily misspelled or misused words. We've discussed some of these before, but a reminder is always good.

Oh, before we talk particular words, can I just say... if you are writing on a tablet (or a phone), I beg you to do EXTRA self-edits before sending your file to your editor—or to have it formatted, for that matter. Really. I am receiving more and more manuscripts where I swear they are using Swype to write and never going back to correct errors. Your most accurate typing comes from a laptop/computer with a full-size keyboard. Trust me on this. (Rates will have to be increased for some if this continues—really.)

So the WORD(s) OF THE DAY from the message I received:

BREATH and BREATHE

There is an easy way to remember which is correct.

"The doctor told me to take a deep breath."OR"After running around the block, I could hardly breathe."

So what's the trick to remembering? BREATHEEEEEE has an E on the end. Breath does not.

Got it?

After discussing breath and breathe, we talked about a few of my frustrations. One I explicitly blame on Social Media. We are all becoming immune to seeing it as an error because of the incorrect overuse. What word(s) am I talking about?

YOUR and YOU'RE — Two entirely different meanings.

YOUR — shows possession. "Is that your coffee?"

YOU'RE — is a contraction of YOU ARE. "You are going to bed early." — "You're going to bed early." NOT "Your going to bed early." NEVER!

Other words to watch for:

to/too/two (and just because you end a sentence with the word 'to' [not recommended], it doesn't mean you spell it 'too'...they are two different words with different meanings.

well/we'll/while

there/their/they're

its/it's

whose/who's

passed/past

So many to watch for.... but the words listed above can easily be incorrect when relying on autocorrect and Swype.